March 16, 2017

In 2004 Jim Webb wrote Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. Though the 2016 presidential election was well over the horizon, Mr. Webb's book is a useful primer on what kept Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton out of the White House and what put Donald John Trump in.

January 4, 2017

I shot it in early May in Pilsen, Czech Republic. The exhibit documents the seventieth anniversary celebration of the liberation of western Czechoslovakia by General George S. Patton, Jr.'s, Third Army in 1945.

August 22, 2016

UNCA D will try to resume regular blogging on September 1. I shut down the site a few weeks back to deal with real life, including planning for a hoped-for photography exhibit this fall. (I'll let you know when I know.) I've taken care of the front-and-center family and personal issues, so I will try to open for business soon. Thanks for your interest. Sorry for the long silence.

July 29, 2016

Beginning around 1810, as Spanish and Portuguese power in the Americas disintegrated during the Napoleonic wars, virtually all the peoples of Latin America broke away from their colonial overlords and formed independent republics . . . . By the end of the decade, much of the Spanish-American mainland was in open revolt.

This is quoted from a review by Fergus M. Bordewich of "Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions by Caitlin Fitz ("Bolivar Hats Were All the Rage," wsj.com, July 25, 2016).

North Americans were thrilled. Until then, Ms. Fitz writes, citizens of the [United States] had "felt like the passengers aboard a political Noah's Ark, a lonely republic bobbing alone in a churching sea of monarchy and responsible for the fate of republicanism itself." But the rise of Latin American independence added a sense of universality to American ideals, making the American people "feel that they stood at the forefront of a worldwide movement for liberty."

From the forested hamlets of Maine to rustic crossroads in Tennessee, newspapers reported breathlessly on the latest turn of events of Chile and Colombia. Hundreds of American parents named their newborn sons after Simon Bolivar, the firebrand who was leading rebellions in Venezuela and elsewhere, while Yankee composers cranked out ditties such as "Gen. Bolivar's Grand March & Quick Step." Ladies bought "Bolivar hats" with broad brims and a profusion of feathers . . . (emphasis added).

Great-great-grandpa Simon Bolivar Crawford discovered America in Greene County, Alabama. His father Jesse had served in the War of 1812, then married and had fourteen children, most tagged with boring names such as William, Thomas, and Jane.

In 1827, however, Jesse and wife Hannah Warren Crawford, named their new son after El Liborator. By then Simon Bolivar was more a dictator than a republican, but who knew? The Great Man died in 1830, shortly after the failure of his dream of a establishing a United States of South America.

Naming kids after historic figures was common in the 1800s, somewhat supplanting the older tradition of using Bible names. My tree is filled with Thomas Jeffersons, Robert E. Lees, and the like.

Another weird name in my ancestry is Lorenzo Dow Austin, after a Methodist evangelist from England. Lorenzo Dow Austin hated the name and signed everything "L.D. Austin." That's what his gravestone says.

Lady Di has an even weirder name in her family, though it appears in a half-great-uncle, not a direct ancestor.

Admiral Dewey Fountain (1899-1987).

Seriously.

Admiral liked his name. There is also an Admiral Dewey Fountain, Jr. (1925-_____).

June 17, 2016

I'm honored that you stop by occasionally to read Unca Darrell. And I deeply regret that I have posted very little in recent days. Believe me, as Mr. Trump is fond of saying, tiny right hand chopping the air, index finger aloft -- Believe me, I'm sitting on a bunch of really good stuff. Absolutely first class stuff. The best stuff ever. Everybody says so. But life is more important than blogging, and I have reached a point where . . .

May 20, 2016

It's the same restaurant, but not location, where Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, Norman Petty, and the boys ordered burgers and fries to fuel their overnight recording sessions at Mr. Petty's nearby studio. The drive-in served its first burger in 1956. Mr. Holly's recordings were made the next year. A son of the original owners now runs the place. More pictures here.